TL;DR: Today I learned that destroying the SAM sites or the defense lasers at the Ice Base actually count as aircraft kills during the WW2 dogfight challenge.

So, I’m going to start this spiel off by saying that I absolutely love to do things I shouldn’t during a game. I decided to employ that strategy on SimplePlanes, and I wasn’t disappointed.

So, the most recent update (as I’m typing this) introduced 2 new combat trials, the bomber escort and the WW2 dogfight. The latter is the subject of conversation today.

As you probably know, the trial doesn’t allow your aircraft to have jet engines or missiles attached, because, you know, its WW2. (Even though some jets flew during the war but we don’t talk about that).

In order to circumvent this, I made a small and light glider-like aircraft with the drag value on most parts set to zero. For propulsion, I used 5 singular rockets that I set to have multiple attachment points so they wouldn’t fly off, a lifetime of 1E+38 (so obscenely long its basically infinite), and a firing delay of 0.1 so they would all fire somewhat evenly.

Upon hitting the start button, I immediately selected AG targeting, fired all 5 rockets, and turned directly away from the enemy planes (those things are vicious btw). In order to travel as quickly as possible, I climbed to 20,000 feet, turned on the autopilot, adjusted my trim to maintain an altitude, and made my way across the ocean towards Snowstone at 1330 MPH (~Mach 1.75).

On an earlier attempt at this, I decided to fly to Sky Park City (the car trial island due south of Wright Isles) and found nothing interesting, so we won’t talk about that.

After about 5 minutes of flying, I arrived at the frozen mass and descended to a reasonable altitude. I explored around a bit, buzzed the tower at Avalanche, and just did some stunts while I watched the pitiful propeller driven enemies slowly approach me.

Then, the idea hit me. What happens if I shoot at the ice base a bit? I had an XML modded gun so why not? I lined up my approach, fired the “Gatling Laser,” and saw an interesting pop up.

Enemy aircraft destroyed!